A welcome to England

As you may have heard me mention (!) we are opening our garden for the National Gardens Scheme to help raise money for charity on 24th June. I am not going to talk about our garden here because I am reaching combustible levels of stress thinking about it and to write more will only wind me up further.
But what a fantastic thing this garden opening scheme is. How many countries can you visit where you can, on any day during the summer turn up at someone's private house, wander around their garden, drink their tea, eat their cake and chat to the owners all for about five quid? In some cases you can even stay in their bedrooms! (Book now to avoid disappointment 01584 819868)

If I was a foreigner wanting to visit Britain and get a real feel of life both in the country and in the cities, the Yellow Book would definitely be my travel guide. It's like every year the whole of Britain puts on a Grand Garden Festival - a countrywide flower show of big and small gardens, allotments and whole villages opening together - all with just normal everyday folk there to welcome you in with a smile - whatever the weather - and a quintessentially English afternoon tea. (The quintessential bit being the rain)
Last weekend I visited Glanarrow at Eardisland in Herefordshire.I could just imagine the gasps of tourists as they wandered up the path to find a gorgeous house with it’s lake complete with little boat and a newly planted avenue of trees leading from the lake to the fields beyond

I really liked the combination of the silver foliage of the weeping pear with the santolinas in the white garden.

The best bit of all is this wonderful herringbone haha which I had never seen before … beautifully made with elegant steps leading to the top lawn (Blogger has decided to place this pic at the top)

Behind the perfectly planted herbaceous border with its hedge backdrop is the neatest potager I’ve ever seen…

But what I loved most was where part of the house became more cottagey and so did the planting. This was where I had my tea and a slice of Victoria sponge….

…..at a table outside the kitchen door looking towards the potager

An interesting contrast was this bench looking very rustic and pretty with the daisies coming through it backing onto a planted streambed leading to the lake,

….but facing a large expanse of plain lawn with a smart Lutyens bench in the distance. A deliberate contrast or the setting of some new project?

Glanarrow is open again on 18th and 19th June in aid of the local church funds.